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Upgrade for Gaming PC

10-12-17, 08:36

As my computer is over 6 years old (except upgrades to storage) it seems like it might be due a bit of an upgrade. I've noticed I've had to turn down settings more and more over the years and would like to bump them back up again. I'm also curious about VR but not sure if I want to make the jump yet so being somewhat "VR ready" would be nice. Current monitors are 1080p.

It seems like GPU and possibly memory are the bits that need the most attention and I've been looking into either a RX 580 or a GTX 1060. Has the bitcoin phenomenon really raised the prices of GPUs that much and so should I wait to see if it bursts and prices drop? Memory also seems expensive at the moment but not sure what is driving that. Budget wise I'm looking at <£400 but more interested in bang-for-buck. Any advice would be appreciated.

I am amazed how many people are in almost exactly the same situation.
Clearly the sandybridge chips were super popular, and many people have held on to them.

I had a similar situation to yours a few months back, and ultimately elected to upgrade the RAM and GPU and leave the rest alone.
Personally, looking at yours I would add another SSD too.

16GB of RAM I didn't think was necessary but has really helped my system.
In terms of GPU, I would look at something around the GTX1060 3GB if you are looking at remaining 1080p (~£200), or possibly jumping to the 1070 or 1070Ti (~£390-420) if you are genuinely thinking about VR. (The 1060 will allow VR, but I think you would prefer a bit more grunt)

I would leave the CPU alone.

If £400 is your limit I would go 1060, RAM (16GB = £115) and an SSD upgrade (£80 will get you a 250GB Samsung 850EVO)

Originally posted by coiler

the trails is where life flows best

Originally posted by coiler

Cruciate, when you need answers, proper answers, head for the tower on the hill, top O' the trail, clarity will be delivered.

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Apologies I didn't bother correcting the storage on that list. I've got a 240gb for games and a 120g for the OS. Still might increase that a bit because I tend to have to juggle a few applications around to save space.

Can you see any reason to go over 3gb for the 1060? Will more vram be better for the limited VR capability it has? Have you got any experience with the noise levels of the 1060? I've seen you can get the single fan compact versions but some reviews complain about the noise a bit - don't really know how picky they are being.

Any recommendations on brand of GPU or memory?

Cheers

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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I recently went from that to the GTX1060 3Gb which I got for £180 at the start of 2017 (ish), and it runs everything absolutely fine. If you're not going to go above 1080p for a while, then it's a good card to go for. On my system, for example, I can easily run The Witcher 3 with everything on Ultra and don't get any slowdowns at all. All lovely and smooth.

With regards to the noise level, I'd go for one with a dual fan cooling solution on it, but that's about all I'd have any experience in recommending.

With regards to the rest of it, as much as I'd love to upgrade my system completely, I just can't find a reason to justify it yet! The 2500K was a fantastic buy.

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So I delayed buying the GPU and regretted it (still hoping prices drop). I did get myself a 250GB OS drive and 16GB RAM though.

I am currently still running Windows 7 from my old OS SSD, with a media drive that's linked to my documents/desktop/pictures and a drive that is just for games (accessed through steam/origin). I'm thinking of upgrading to Windows 10 and wondering whether I should take the upgrade or fresh install route. What would you guys recommend?